The photos are either old or unrelated to the Saba Saba protests.
By Rodgers Omondi
These tweets with images supposedly of Saba Saba anti-government protests Kenya’s Meru, Nairobi and Kitale towns are FALSE.
Saba Saba (Seven Seven) is symbolic and refers to the date 7 July. It was first commemorated in Kenya in 1990, when demonstrations were held against single-party governance.
Ever since, Kenyans have used Saba Saba to protest and raise grievances against the government.
In the run-up to 7 July 2023, the opposition announced it will hold countrywide protests against the high-cost of living on Saba Saba day.
But are these photos related to the 2023 Saba Saba anti-government protests?
The first post had two photos supposedly of the situation in Meru town.
We performed a Google reverse image search and established that the pictures are from protests at Maseno University and Kibera respectively.
The second post has the picture of a military tanker and a building on fire. The text accompanying the image reads: “Situation write now at Nairobi CBD. KDF has taken charge (Sic)”.
A Google reverse image search shows that the photo was taken during the Romanian revolution that happened in December 1989.
The final post has an image purportedly of a protest scene in Kitale town.
By performing a Google reverse image search, we found that the photo is from India and it was taken in May 2023 at Rajasthan’s Hanumangarh after a military plane crashed in the area.
PesaCheck has examined tweets with photos supposedly of the 2023 Saba Saba anti-government protests in Kenya’s Meru, Nairobi and Kitale towns and found them to be FALSE.
This fact check was published by Piga Firimbi with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck and African Fact-Checking Alliance.
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